The Reality
by Draconis
Summary: A rewrite of: The Beginning, by K.A. Applegate. A story in which Rachel escapes death, and lives in secret until the experience with "The One". Also includes the events which take place AFTER the ramming.
1. Chapter 1 (Rachel)

Disclaimer: I do not own Animorphs. K.A. Applegate does, so don't even waste time trying to sue. Nothing of value anyway.  
  
Animorphs  
  
The Reality  
  
*Chapter 1*  
  
My name is Rachel.  
  
I knew what was coming. I knew.  
  
I'd seen it in Jake's eyes.  
  
And you know what? I was scared.  
  
I never thought I would be. Cassie thinks I'm fearless. Marco thinks I'm reckless. Tobias...well, Tobias loves me.  
  
But I was scared.  
  
I guess no one wants to die. I guess everyone is scared when the time comes.  
  
We were so close. We were right there, right at the finish line, I'd already survived many times when I shouldn't have. It seemed unfair. To come this far, get this close...  
  
Jake gave me the job because he knew that only I could do it. Would do it. Ax might have, sure, but he was needed for his skills. Me, I'm not the computer genius.  
  
I guess they all do, in different ways. Jake, too. But Jake had to do the right thing.  
  
I felt sorry for him, you know? He's carried the weight so long. He's made hard decisions. None as hard as this maybe. I didn't blame him, not for a minute. I'm the one you send when you need someone crazy, to do the hard thing.  
  
I don't know whether I'm proud of that or not.  
  
I was Jake's insurance policy. He thought maybe he wouldn't have to use me. He hoped, anyway. But deep down he knew, and I knew, and we both hid the truth from the others because Cassie couldn't let Jake make that decision, and Tobias couldn't let me, and those two, by loving us, would have screwed everything up.  
  
It was a war, after all. A war we had to win.  
  
We hadn't asked the Yeerks to come to Earth. They made that call on their own. They're a parasitic species, not very big or impressive to look at, just these small snail-like things that can enter your head through your ear. They have a capacity to synthesize the inner ear enough to allow them to burrow through the soft tissue. It still hurts but not as much as it should.  
  
They dig their way straight to your brain and then flatten themselves out, spread themselves into the crevices, tie directly into your synapses. They take control. Absolute control.  
  
They read your thoughts, they sense your emotions. What your eyes see, they see. What your tongue tastes, they taste. If your hand moves, it's because they moved it. If you speak, it is the Yeerk who has spoken through you, made you into a ventriloquist's dummy.  
  
Over the course of the years they spread like a virus. Invisible. Undetectable.  
  
They are your teacher, your pastor, your best friend. They are the police officer,  
  
the TV newsman, the soldier. Anyone.  
  
Jake's parents had recently been taken; they were human-Controllers - people controlled by Yeerks.  
  
Jake's brother Tom, my cousin, had been a Controller for a long time. He was a powerful Yeerk. Jake still cared for him, still hoped somehow he could be saved.  
  
Jake sent me away with Tom.  
  
I understood. I approved. If Jake hadn't sent me I'd have gone anyway.  
  
Still though, I was scared.  
  
I had power myself. We all did. The strange, unsettling power to absorb DNA from any living creature, to then alter our physical bodies to become that creature.  
  
I've been a whole zoo, you know. Everything from fly to an elephant. Bat. Owl. I've flown, way up in the sky with eagle wings. I've flown up there with Tobias. Way up in the clouds. If there's something better than that, I never found it.  
  
It's not magic. Just technology. Of course technology always seems like magic at first. Haul a tenth-century knight into the modern age and show him your cell phone or your TV or your computer. Magic.  
  
This technology came from the Andalites. The Andalites are enemies of the Yeerks, and I guess allies of ours, though right at the moment they were more likely to annihilate Earth than the Yeerks were. You know the old saying, "With friends like these, who needs enemies?"  
  
Anyway, it began with a chance meeting. An Andalite prince named Elfangor crashed his shot-up fighter in out path. Coincidence? No, history. And a helping hand from the Ellimist who of course never lends a helping hand.  
  
Elfangor died, but not before he told us what was happening and gave us the morphing technology.  
  
I've been a rat. A dolphin...oh, man, do they have fun. That rush when you're zooming straight up through the water, when you see the ripply surface of the sea, when you blow through that barrier and soar through the air... And then splash! And do it all over again.  
  
So, anyway, we decided we had to try and stop the Yeerks. Jake and Tobias and Cassie and Marco and Ax, who is Elfangor's little brother, and me. We lived this secret life. We fought and mostly lost, but we survived. We frustrated the Yeerks. We ruined Visser Three's life, though he still managed to be promoted to Visser One.  
  
Maybe we did too good a job frustrating the Yeerks. The Yeerks grew tired of infiltration. Visser One had been craving open war. And when we blew up their ground-based Yeerk pool, the source of their food, the center of their lives, it was gloves off.  
  
So much the better as far as I was concerned. The time had come to settle things.  
  
The Yeerks obliterated our town to create a dead zone around their construction of a new Yeerk pool. They were in a hurry. Without a functioning pool they were getting hungry.  
  
But a worm was gnawing at the Yeerk race. They had acquired the morphing technology themselves -- in part because of what Jake thought to be Cassie's betrayal.  
  
Cassie sees further than I do. Further than any of us. She sees deep. The girl cannot dress or accessorize to save her life, she's a girl who wears manure-stained Wal-Mart jeans for crying out loud, but Cassie sees connections and possibilities that the others don't.  
  
She let Tom take the morphing cube. And that changed everything. The Yeerks began to see a way out of their parasitic lives. The hunger-crazed Taxxons -- a race held captive by the Yeerks -- began to dream of s life without their Yeerk overlords. A revolution was brewing.  
  
At the same time, the Andalite fleet was closing in, ready to obliterate Earth as the only way to stop the Yeerk infestation. They had watched the Yeerks concentrate their forces on Earth. They were ready to bring down the curtain: Obliterate Earth and the Yeerk Empire would be gutted.  
  
But Tom betrayed his visser, betrayed the Yeerk race. Not for the sake of poor old humanity, but for his own ambition. He would escape with the morphing cube and a hard core of faithful Yeerk supporters. He would abandon the Yeerk people to the Andalite vengeance, destroy the hated Animorphs, and if H. sapiens was annihilated, too, well...  
  
That's where Jake saw his chance. Tom's Yeerk is smart. Jake is smarter.  
  
Now Jake and the others had control of the Yeerk Pool ship. Tom had control of the visser's own personal Blade ship.  
  
Tom -- the Yeerk in Tom's head -- was closing in for his final act of betrayal: He would kill his master, Visser One, and doom his fellow Yeerks. He thought we were already dead.  
  
Surprise, Tom.  
  
My favorite morph was the grizzly bear. Seven feet tall standing erect. You cannot imagine the power, especially when united with human intelligence and knowledge. Compared to my grizzly morph a human being is like something made out of glued-together Popsicle sticks.  
  
How many times have I felt that change as muscle piled on muscle, as the thick brown fur covers me, as the rail spike claws grow from my fingers?  
  
The grizzly bear and I had been through a lot together.  
  
I would go grizzly to kill Tom. 


	2. Chapter 2 (Rachel)

*Chapter 2*  
  
I was a flea on Tom's head. A flea can't see much really, just an impression of light or dark. Not my favorite morph. But if you want to hide out, unnoticed. on a human body, you can't beat the flea. And with practice you can learn to understand speech from the distant, distorted vibrations that reach your quivering antennae.  
  
My time was coming, and I had to find a place to demorph and remorph. I fired the spring-loaded legs and catapulted into the air.  
  
It took forever for me to fall. The first time you do it it scares the pee out of you. Falling and falling like that. Like you jumped off the moon and were falling to Earth.  
  
I hit the deck, a fall of thousands of times my own height. Flea didn't care. Not even a bruise.  
  
A strained voice said, "That's...that's not a waste dump. They're not dumping waste! That's the pool. The main pool. It's been flushed."  
  
There was an audible gasp from several voices. The human-controllers and Hork-Bajir-controllers who were Tom's bridge crew.  
  
"Sensors showing...it's our people. Sixteen thousand...maybe seventeen thousand."  
  
Tom cut in harshly. "It saves us the trouble of killing them ourselves." Then, in an undertone, "But why? Why would the visser flush...what does this mean?"  
  
It means Jake's alive, Tommy boy. You'll figure it out in a minute, but I'm guessing it will be too late.  
  
Away from blood. That's where I had to go. The flea's senses were all attuned to the warm scent of blood. But that scent represented danger to me now, and I hopped away, each bounding leap the equivalent of a human jumping over the Grand Canyon. Try getting a flea morph to move away from blood. Amazing how much resistance you can get from a brain that's about ten cells big.  
  
I felt shade. Absence of light. Distance from vibration. No scent of blood.  
  
Was I in a safe place? Surely not, but maybe safe enough.  
  
I began a slow, cautious demorph.  
  
I heard a yell.  
  
"The Pool ship is preparing to fire!"  
  
"Hard left!" Tom yelled.  
  
A moment later, Tom laughed. "The visser's lost maneuvering ability. The Pool ship handles like a drunken Gedd at the best of times, and now look at it."  
  
Someone else reported, "His Dracon cannon is powering down. I show his reserves at less than ten percent."  
  
"Are they? Well, well," Tom said. "Hail the visser. On screen."  
  
I was halfway demorphed. I was a hideous creature made up of armored plating and prickly legs and human flesh spreading across me like a wave. The sickest imagination could not conjure up the true creepiness of a half-flea human. Human eyes, my own eyes, bulged from an insect face.  
  
I could see. Not well, confused, distorted, my visual cortex still more flea than human. I was still on the bridge of the Blade ship. I was actually crouched beneath an unoccupied control station. It was like hiding under a desk. Fortunately it was designed for a Hork-Bajir, so there was some room.  
  
I saw the viewscreen light up. I saw Visser One's Andalite face. It was different. There was a dull look in his usually aggressive eyes, a slackness in the normally tensed body.  
  
"You seem to be experiencing some engine trouble, Visser," Tom gloated.  
  
I was completely demorphed now. There would be no room for me to morph all the way to grizzly and stay concealed. Every eye on the bridge was watching the screen, but a seven-foot bear looming up would definitely attract attention.  
  
I started the morph. If it turned out I wasn't needed, then it would be fatally stupid of me. But I had no real doubt.  
  
Visser One said, The Empire will track you down and kill you, you do understand, I hope?  
  
"Oh, I doubt it. I think the Empire will have its hands full," Tom said cheerfully. "The Andalite fleet is rather close by. It's possible that I misled you on that point."  
  
He was all but giggling.  
  
Then, the viewscreen widened out and he saw, and I saw, the lithe Bengal tiger standing near the visser.  
  
Tobias was there too.  
  
Tom saw the tiger and knew it was Jake and knew in that split second that he had been outmaneuvered, outfought. He took a step back, like he'd been punched. "You're not dead!" he cried.  
  
I noticed the same thing, Visser One said dryly.  
  
Tom yelled, "Bring us around to target the Pool ship's bridge. Do it! Now! Now! Bring us around!"  
  
At that moment I could have morphed to elephant without being noticed. Tom's panic was infectious. They all knew they'd been had.  
  
But they didn't know how. Tom's reaction was pure instinct: shoot. He'd forgotten that the Pool ship was helpless. The sight of Jake -- who should be dead -- standing there, with the other Animorphs, standing there alive and apparently in control of the Pool ship...all Tom could think of was shooting.  
  
The danger was closer than that.  
  
Jake looked at me. Like he knew I was watching.  
  
Rachel, he said. Go.  
  
Rachel... Tobias said.  
  
I know, Tobias. I know. I said.  
  
I was still not completely morphed when someone shrieked. "Animorph!"  
  
After all these years of the Yeerks thinking we were Andalites, always yelling "Andalite!" whenever they saw a morph. It was strangely gratifying that at last they knew who we were.  
  
I said, That's right, genius: Animorph.  
  
I did what I do better than anyone. What Jake counted on me to do.  
  
I attacked. 


	3. Chapter 3 (Rachel)

*Chapter 3*  
  
I charged straight for Tom, on all fours, head down, an express train of muscle and fur, claws and teeth.  
  
I hit him with my lowered head and knocked him into the viewscreen. Not enough to take Tom out, but I had to try and damage the ship.  
  
Tseeew!  
  
Someone fired a Dracon beam. I felt the searing pain in my right flank but it didn't matter. I was in berserk mode. Pain was something that could be stored for later. Right now I was enraged bear. I slammed a shoulder left, slammed a shoulder right and felt crumpling metal.  
  
Tom yelled, "No shooting! You'll destroy the bridge! Morph! Morph you idiots!"  
  
I swung a paw at him, and it should have been all over right then, but I missed. He dropped and I missed.  
  
I reared up to my full height Tom rolled into a ball. He was down under my legs, I swiped his back and laid open his spine, but I didn't stop him.  
  
He was through my legs and behind me and staggering toward the exit.  
  
I spun, dropping to all fours and bounded to cut him off. I reached the exit a split second before him and shouldered him aside in the process. He spun like a top and fell on his butt.  
  
I was in a clumsy stance so I just sort of dropped on him. It was like some WWF body slam, only I wasn't faking it. He grunted and I saw blood gush from his nose and mouth.  
  
Too easy. My final battle. It couldn't be this easy.  
  
I drew back, ready to go in and finish the job. But I had wasted too much time. There were others on the bridge. And I had overlooked the fact that we were no longer the only ones who could morph. Every member of Tom's handpicked crew could morph, and I was surrounded now by a half dozed half-morphed beasts.  
  
Tom himself was starting to morph, but he wasn't my main problem now.  
  
Rachel! Behind!  
  
It was Jake. He was watching the fight from the Pool ship.  
  
I spun, slashed horizontally and something that may have been a half-morphed leopard crumpled like a Dixie cup.  
  
The main weapons station was right there, a sort of waist-high, freestanding station. I threw myself back into it and heard a nice crunch as it toppled.  
  
But that was more seconds lost while the Yeerks were completing their morphs. All but Tom. His scarred back was crusting over with reptilian scales, but he was nothing recognizable yet. And in any case, I had enough to keep me busy.  
  
I faced two lionesses, a cape buffalo, and a polar bear. It was a whole zoo full of dangerous animals. The polar bear was my equal all by himself. The cape buffalo maybe as well. I could take either lioness, but the combination was going to be rough.  
  
For a wondrous, frozen moment we all waited, stared, breathed, tensed, expectant.  
  
I felt...  
  
I felt exalted.  
  
It was my moment. This was my place and my time and my own perfection.  
  
I was no longer afraid. Weird. If I had a mouth I'd have smiled.  
  
Well? I said.  
  
No one moved.  
  
Scared? I asked.  
  
No answer.  
  
You should be, I said, almost laughing.  
  
I lunged, straight for the polar bear. Go for the main opponent first. Go for the danger. I barreled straight into him. It was a train crash. I slammed him, my shoulder into the side of his head.  
  
He had a bear morph. I was my bear morph.  
  
Experience is very helpful.  
  
The polar bear staggered. I extended my claws and in a move no real bear had ever learned, I drove them straight into him, like four daggers, right beneath the front right shoulder: the heart. I hit him again before the cape buffalo slammed me and knocked me, windless, into the bulkhead.  
  
The buffalo backed up and came at me again, the wide, thick horns like a battering ram. But the beast's hooves were designed for dirt and grass, not the slippery floor. He didn't fall, but he lost a lot of speed and momentum. He hit me in my exposed belly. It would have killed me if he'd been up to speed. Even so it crushed the last ounce of air from my lungs. I felt like someone dropped a house on me.  
  
A lioness was on my face, clawing madly, like a crazed alley cat. The other one was trying to bite my neck -- a waste of time. No one bites through a grizzly's fur.  
  
I was down, buried under mad fur. I was down, slashed at, punched, hammered, clawed. My legs were in the air, helpless!  
  
I drew my legs close and shifted my weight. Got my legs under me. I lifted myself and the two lions. I shook myself violently and threw off the lion who'd been on my face. I aimed a blow at her but she was too fast.  
  
Out of the corner of my eye I saw the polar bear demorphing. It's the only way when your morph body is dying: demorph and fast. Die in morph and you're dead. Period.  
  
But I was missing something. Something nagged at me.  
  
Tom! Jake yelled. Tom!  
  
The cape buffalo butted me in the hindquarters and spun me around. The lion on my back was reaching around like it was trying to strangle me, digging busy claws into the folds of loose skin around my throat.  
  
The second lion charged gamely, leaped and sank its teeth into my left haunch.  
  
Had to take out the Yeerk with the polar bear morph. Had to stop him  
  
remorphing. I'd been lucky once, experience had told. But I couldn't count on a second easy win with a polar bear.  
  
I tried to stagger forward, but the buffalo had done some damage now. My hindquarters were numb and weak. He was hitting me with short, sharp blows, like a boxer rabbit-punching. He'd figured out he couldn't really wind up and deliver a killing blow.  
  
Tom! Rachel, Tom! Look out for Tom!  
  
Jake's voice was far away. Strange.  
  
The slick floor that handicapped the buffalo now worked against me, too. I couldn't get enough traction with my blood-soaked pads.  
  
Had to get the Yeerk with the polar bear morph. He was demorphed now. Ready to start morphing and come back rejuvenated.  
  
So heavy. Floor all covered in blood. Wow, they were really bleeding.  
  
My front right leg buckled. It was a pail of ice water in my face, a sudden realization.  
  
My blood. That was my blood on the floor.  
  
White fur began to ripple across the morphing Yeerk.  
  
He's a snake! a voice cried. Rachel!  
  
No, he's a bear, I thought.  
  
A flash of movement, so fast it was a blur. Something in my eyes! Burning. I couldn't see. That's okay, okay, bears can't see all that well anyway, I had...I had...  
  
A cobra, some distant, strange, analytical part of my brain noted. Tom's morph: a cobra. The venom was in my eyes.  
  
I couldn't think. Couldn't see.  
  
Demorph.  
  
No. Bear. The lions on me.  
  
Weak. Strange to be the bear and be weak. Strange.  
  
I realized I was no longer standing. I was flat on the floor. I heard my own slow breathing. I should be panting.  
  
Something striking at my face again and again. The cobra. Couldn't even see him.  
  
I had failed. Tom. Alive.  
  
Die, human, he said. Just die.  
  
Rachel! Tobias cried.  
  
Help me, Tobias, I pleaded.  
  
I can't...I...  
  
He didn't understand. Help me get him. Help me get him!  
  
Okay. Okay. He's...your left paw, toward your face. Get ready. Has to be fast.  
  
I'm ready.  
  
Now!  
  
I jerked my paw, claws extended towards my face.  
  
Tom shrieked. I couldn't see him. But I felt something squirming. Like a worm on a fishhook. The snake was impaled on my claws.  
  
No! Tom cried in outrage.  
  
I brought my paw to my mouth.  
  
Sorry, I said vaguely.  
  
Jake, stop her! the Yeerk screamed with Tom's mouth.  
  
I bit down on the snake. 


	4. Chapter 4 (Rachel)

*Chapter 4*  
  
I lay there in suspended animation.  
  
I felt myself floating.  
  
The bear was melting. Old grizzly bear, my friend. Good old bear.  
  
I demorphed. The snake was still in my mouth. Motionless.  
  
I demorphed.  
  
I was Rachel again, alive, unhurt. I could have bounded up and gone off to the mall to shop. But I didn't kid myself. I didn't hope.  
  
I spit the snake out.  
  
I was surrounded on all sides. I was only a weak human girl now. The polar bear loomed over me, his strength the equal of my own grizzly, but now I was just me, just Rachel.  
  
I could see the viewscreen. I could see my best friend Cassie. Jake. Marco, funny Marco. Ax.  
  
Tobias.  
  
He had morphed. He was his human self once more. He'd done that for me. And because he was crying. I understood. Humans cry, hawks don't.  
  
"I love you," I said to the screen.  
  
And oh, god, how could so much regret and so much sweetness and so much sadness all be present in that single moment. I was already dead and missing my unlived life. I was already dead and Tobias was mourning.  
  
I tried to smile. For him.  
  
The polar bear said, You fight well, human.  
  
Then he killed me with a single blow.  
  
Time stopped.  
  
He came to me. The Ellimist.  
  
The puppet master come to watch my final act. It figured. He was in his saintly old man guise. As fake as everything else about him. The all-powerful weakling. The mighty manipulator.  
  
"You," I said accusingly.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Who are you?" I demanded. "Who are you to play games with us? You appear, you disappear, you use us, who are you, what are you?"  
  
And then, for what seemed like a very long time, the Ellimist told me. I saw. I understood.  
  
But I also knew that he would not save me. That he couldn't under the arcane rules of his millennia-long war with Crayak.  
  
The Ellimist was there to honor me, and I guess that was nice of him. Wasn't going to help me much.  
  
I wanted so much to live. I wanted so much to stay and not to leave. In a moment no answer would matter to me, but just the same, I wanted to know what I guess any dying person wants to know.  
  
"Answer this, Ellimist: Did I...did I make a difference? My life, and my...my death...was I worth it? Did my life really matter?"  
  
"Yes," he said. "You were brave. You were strong. You were good. You mattered."  
  
"Yeah. Okay, then. Okay, then."  
  
I wondered if --  
  
(And now...the fun begins.)  
  
FLASH!  
  
Time started up again. I knew I didn't have any time left, but I had to try. I still had just a little life still in me, and it was now or never. The Yeerks were concentrating on piloting the Blade ship away, to escape from the Pool ship, and into outer space. My broken neck lolled about aimlessly. I could not breathe. Quickly, I concentrated. I concentrated on the first morph that popped into my head. Roach. It was my salvation, my deliverance. I began to morph, slowly at first, but with growing rapidness. I began gaining more feeling as I morphed, the sensations of the cockroach overriding my dying human  
  
ones.  
  
15, 14, 13... The seconds ticked away, and I knew if I didn't finish by the last second, I would lose consciousness, and my life along with it.  
  
8, 7, 6, 5... My legs sprouted hairy prickles. My head grew long antennae.  
  
4, 3... I was 80 percent roach now.  
  
2, 1... 95 percent.  
  
0. I had done it. I was still alive. Once again, Rachel the Warrior Princess had beaten death. Once again I had survived. However, with the viewscreen off, at least disabled from connection with the Pool ship, I knew my friends hadn't seen me. They still believed me dead. And, for a while, it would be best to keep it that way.  
  
I scurried down the passageway in my roach morph. I'd been here before, so the terrain was easy enough to place. I made it quickly to an unoccupied Bug fighter, and scrambled aboard, demorphing in the process.  
  
Then, morphing to my Hork-Bajir form, I punched in the controls and fired the engine. I exploded out of the hangar and into deep space.  
  
My destination... Hmm, I had to think about that. I needed a cover, and the only way for that to happen now was through Erek, who was currently on the Pool ship, as far as I knew. So, my plan was clear. I would dock with the Pool ship, and talk to Erek about my diversion plan.  
  
I set the course, then flew, using the Hork-Bajir mind, who was familiar with the controls, to pilot the ship to the docking of the Pool ship.  
  
Docking wasn't hard. So many Bug fighters were coming in at the same time, so all I needed to do was fall in line with them. I did so, then allowed the ship to be configured for auto dock. I moved into the back and demorphed once again.  
  
Did I say morphing was tiring? It is. And especially after escaping an almost inescapable death, it becomes even more tiring. I had little doubt that the Ellimist ever saw that one coming.  
  
I found a small cloak in the storage area of the Bug fighter. Most likely for one of the human-Controllers to which this fighter was registered. I put it on quickly, wrapping it around myself so as to conceal my identity. I knew I would run into Jake and the others, so I had to be prepared.  
  
The Pool ship, one massive hunk of spare parts, or so it felt like to me, was slowly rotating in the air, not moving as such, but still mobile. I snuck in, unnoticed in the confusion. All the Yeerk prisoners were being herded off in different directions. One girl in a black cloak didn't attract too much attention. I soon found Cassie, who was walking in wolf morph towards the engine room, looking for Erek.  
  
I saw Erek appearing before Cassie, then watched as Cassie demorphed to human.  
  
"Hi, Erek," Cassie said.  
  
"Hi, Cassie." He said sadly. "Jake sent you."  
  
I watched Cassie nod her head.  
  
"I see. He feels guilty."  
  
"No. Not guilty," Cassie replied.  
  
Of course not, I thought, smirking.  
  
His holographic eyes narrowed at Cassie. "Then what? He used me, blackmailed me, manipulated my programming to get me to break through the security grid and take control of this ship."  
  
"You drained the Dracon beams."  
  
So that's why the cannon was so low! Erek!  
  
"What did Jake expect me to do? I had given him control when he needed it. I wasn't going to enable him to kill."  
  
"The Blade ship got away. Rachel...Jake had Rachel with Tom. Tom and Rachel are both... and the ship got away anyway. Thanks to you."  
  
Such anger I had never seen from Cassie before. And yet, here I was, watching her from behind a pole, not able to reveal myself to still be among the living. I felt terrible for that.  
  
The Erek hologram disappeared. He was an android now, a thing of steel and ivory vaguely in the shape of a dog walking erect. "And I'm supposed to feel regret because Jake ordered his cousin to kill his brother and I didn't allow him to massacre everyone else on the Blade ship?"  
  
He had a point. But still, it was a war. People died in wars, often for no reason. But I understood what he was saying.  
  
Cassie looked ready to burst. Her anger at his words was showing magnificently.  
  
"So, you, too, huh Cassie?"  
  
"Jake did what he had to do."  
  
"Did he? Someone flushed the Yeerk pool into space. Did he have to do that too? They were unhosted Yeerks. They were harmless."  
  
"We needed a div--" She stopped, knowing he'd react to that.  
  
And react he did. "A what? A what did you need? A diversion? You're going to tell me you needed a diversion so Jake massacred seventeen thousand sentient creatures? A diversion?"  
  
He was clearly breaking Cassie's spirit. She inhaled deeply. "Jake says maybe you should get off the ship, Erek. The Andalites will most likely be coming aboard the ship soon. It's up to you whether you go on keeping your existence secret. We won't divulge it."  
  
"I see."  
  
"Bye Erek."  
  
He nodded. Then, as he was passing, in a direct path for my station, he took Cassie's arm in his pseudo-hand. "Take care of Jake. He's going to need you."  
  
Cassie smiled sadly, then left. Erek came by, then stopped. He turned and looked at me. "So, did you enjoy our conversation, human?"  
  
I smirked under the cowl of my cloak. "I'm more on Cassie's side, Erek. But all in all, it was okay."  
  
Erek's mind whirred, I could tell. Contemplating. Then his hologram switched back on, with a face of shock embedded in the features. "Rachel!" he breathed.  
  
I lowered the cowl and brushed back my blondish-brown hair. "The one and only."  
  
Erek seemed to absorb that. He tried to speak, but I stopped him. "I need your help one last time, old friend."  
  
"My help? Your cousin used my help in ways I never approved of. Why should I believe anything different of you?"  
  
"Because, I'm already dead. There isn't anyone here who can currently say otherwise. And I need you to be me, for whatever kind of funeral plan they have for me. Most likely, I can see them cremating me, as I would hate to just be buried in the ground to rot. That's like me getting dirty. Not going to happen."  
  
He laughed. "I understand. Rachel, this will have to be my final act though. I won't be a part of this anymore, you understand."  
  
"Nor would I choose for you to be. We've all been through a lot. It's time to return to our normal lives."  
  
He nodded, then scanned a picture of me into his databanks. He would help me with this last request to the best of his ability, and I was eternally grateful. I watched him disappear down the hall, then hurried to catch up with Cassie. 


	5. Chapter 5 (Rachel)

*Chapter 5*  
  
I returned to where Jake and the others were right behind Cassie. A few others were in the room besides the Animorphs, so I wasn't too out of place. I took a stance next to Cassie, and quietly whispered in her ear. "Rachel will always be with you, Cassie."  
  
Cassie didn't answer, but I saw a single tear roll down her cheek. "I know," she  
  
whispered back.  
  
At that moment, I took her hand and squeezed it. "Look at me, Cassie. Look at me now."  
  
She turned and looked at me. My face was still halfway concealed by the cloak, but she could still see enough of me to get an idea of who I was.  
  
I smiled. "Yes, Cassie. Yes. There isn't a fight I've ever been in where I haven't found some way to survive. I'm still here, Cassie. I am Rachel. I'm alive."  
  
Cassie looked startled, then grinned happily. "I never should have doubted. I have to tell the others!"  
  
"No!" I cried, loudly, but not loudly enough to catch the attention of the others.  
  
"What?"  
  
"I have it planned out. No one should know I'm alive until after the funeral procession, whenever it's set up. I told you because you're my best friend, and I don't want you crying over me anymore. I'll tell Tobias later. But for now, it's a secret for you and me to share. Understand?"  
  
Reluctantly, she nodded her head.  
  
I patted her on the back, then hugged her softly.  
  
"I'm glad you're back, Rachel. But tell me, how are you planning on faking your own death?"  
  
I smiled evilly. "One last arrangement with Erek."  
  
"Ah," said Cassie, suddenly not wanting to talk anymore.  
  
We both began to pay attention to what the others were saying.  
  
Marco was the one speaking then. "...no way of knowing whether we're really us or Controllers."  
  
Ax said, There is a Yeerk Blade ship heading... He consulted a display panel and gave the coordinates. You may be able to intercept them.  
  
The Andalite officer on viewscreen said, Anything else, Yeerk? Is there another part to this pitiful attempt at a trap? He looked about to sign off.  
  
Andalites. So arrogant and rough.  
  
Jake arrived. I smiled inwardly. "Where do we stand?" He asked Marco.  
  
Marco motioned to the screen. "This genius thinks we're Controllers trying to set him up."  
  
Jake nodded. He clearly hadn't noticed me, which was good. "Perfect," he said dryly. "How do we get around this?"  
  
Tell him you'll surrender the Pool ship to them.  
  
I took a step back.  
  
"Visser One?!" I hissed to Cassie.  
  
"No. It's the Andalite talking," she whispered back.  
  
The Andalite officer said, So the deception is over. I see the visser has revealed himself.  
  
Alloran seemed about to speak, then he turned his face and main eyes to Jake. With your permission?  
  
That was a weird moment. Alloran was an arrogant, determined, even criminally ruthless Andalite war prince. Or he had been once, long ago. And then, for a long time, that face had been the face of our deadliest enemy, Visser Three/One. And now he was meekly waiting for Jake's okay.  
  
Jake nodded and in a very respectful tone said, "Please continue, War- Prince Alloran."  
  
Alloran's main eyes flickered, a slight display of emotion. Who are you? he demanded of the Andalite warrior.  
  
I am Offeran-Jibril-Castant. I am officer of the day about the Dome ship... He hesitated and there was a slight, ironic smile. An Andalite smile, of course, which is all in the eyes. The Dome ship Elfangor.  
  
Ax swelled about a size. A Dome ship named for Elfangor. There is no higher honor for a warrior.  
  
A well-named ship, Alloran said. Now, officer-of-the-day Offeran, you're going to want to contact the captain because you have just captured a Yeerk Pool ship. We will advance at space normal speed to any point you name. All Bug fighters will be deployed around the ship, and as we reach the rendezvous point you will see all Bug fighters self-destruct. At that time we will detach the Pool ship's main engines. All weapons will be powered down. This ship will be perfectly helpless.  
  
That got Offeran's attention. He turned a shade of lighter blue. It was kind of as if in the middle of World War II the Japanese Navy had called up the U.S. Navy and said, "Hey, we're going to turn over our biggest aircraft carrier to you. Come on over and pick up the keys."  
  
Suddenly the scene changed. The face on the screen was older. This Andalite had a burn scar on his scalp and was missing one stalk eye.  
  
The captain favored majorly Marco, Alloran, and the others up front with a long, hard, serious look. Then he said, Visser, I refuse to--  
  
Marco spoke again -- and once again it seemed he would screw everything up again with his mouth...  
  
"Hey, Ax-man," he said. "Is it true the Andalite home world is watching all this? Can I wave to them?" He waved like one of those idiots outside the Today show. "Hi, everyone! Howard Stern rules! Yaaaah!"  
  
I nearly cracked up despite myself. Here it was, our moment of triumph, and Marco was behaving like his usual idiotic self.  
  
That show of stupidity stopped everyone and everything dead. You could practically see the wheels turning in the old Andalite's nasty- looking head. Jake looked for a minute like he might slap Marco silly. And Ax basically turned to stone.  
  
But then Jake nodded. He understood...whatever Marco had done. A typical male-bonding trait.  
  
So did Alloran, apparently. I should have mentioned that under orders from his prince, aristh Aximili has patched this communication through to the civilian net.  
  
The Andalite had a mean look to him now. Furious. He was a person in a trap. A powerful person in a trap, not used to being trapped, not liking it.  
  
Jake stepped into the Andalite's line of sight. "Captain Asculan, we know that the Andalite fleet is devoted to the destruction of the Yeerk threat. And we know that you must be personally committed to that goal."  
  
I translated in my head... I had no idea that Marco was translating in the same words: We know you've come here to turn Earth into a great big charcoal briquette because you think it's the only way to stop the Yeerks.  
  
"Because of your devotion to duty it may almost seem a disappointment to reach your goal at long last, only to discover that your foe has essentially surrendered."  
  
Translation: It's over.  
  
"At this point we have set aside the necessary ruthlessness of war, the suspicion and hostility, and turn instead to the satisfying duties of making peace."  
  
Translation: Your people back home are watching and if you come in guns blazing, annihilating a peaceful people, your own peaceful citizens will never stand for it.  
  
"Our victory could never have occurred without the support of out Andalite friends."  
  
Translation: Look, we're willing to share the credit. You people did squat for us, but we're willing to spread the kudos around freely.  
  
"I look forward to our two peaceful peoples working closely together, to forming a deep and abiding friendship. We have so much to learn from our Andalite brothers, just as we have already learned so much from the great Elfangor and his no less courageous and resourceful brother, Aximili."  
  
Translation: The Dome ship Elfangor is going to come in and annihilate all of the real Elfangor's work? Kill his little brother who happens to be a ready-made Andalite hero? Guess again, you mean old fart.  
  
The captain listened to all this impassively. But we could see the steam sort of leaking out of him. By the end of Jake's little speech his eyes were glazed over. He knew he'd been trapped but good, and the truth was, he was probably relieved.  
  
Who exactly are you? Asculan asked Jake.  
  
I watched Marco jerk his thumb toward Jake. "This is Jake. Jake Berenson. President of Earth."  
  
President of Earth? Jake? Okay that was a bit much. I nearly laughed, but I knew that would give me away, so I didn't.  
  
And besides, I thought this was Jake's moment, so I didn't want to spoil it.  
  
We, and by we, I meant Jake and the others, flew the Pool ship just beyond the moon's orbit. As everyone had promised, the Bug fighters were deployed by remote control and blown up. The ship's engines were detached, and all of us waited. Waited for hours.  
  
Then, in a rush, perhaps two dozen of the slightly goofy-looking Andalite fighters came swooping around us. They surrounded us, shredder weapons aimed. It was a hair-raising moment.  
  
Then the Dome ship Elfangor and another Dome ship came in from different directions. Dome ships are very cool and typically Andalite. They're built a little like palm trees. There's a long trunk with engines at one end and a bulge for weapons and living quarters in the middle. On top you have a big glass dome over grass and trees and even streams and little hills. The Andalites are a grazing species: They love an open meadow.  
  
Dome ships are also exceedingly well-armed. I don't know who wins a straight-up fight between a Yeerk Pool ship and an Andalite Dome ship. But I know who wins when the Pool ship is disarmed and without engines.  
  
The Andalites ran sensor probes and satisfied themselves that we were powered down and that no other Yeerk ships were in the immediate vicinity.  
  
Asculan arrived soon after by shuttle, along with a half-dozen tough- looking Andalite marines and as many officers. Jake sent Ax to meet them at the space dock, while he stayed on the bridge.  
  
Marco's insisting, obviously, as he said, "The boss doesn't go down to the airport, he sends a limo or whatever. The boss waits in headquarters."  
  
"Is that so?" Jake said.  
  
"Yeah. Look, Jake, you're a sixteen-year-old kid. But the Andalites don't know that, right? Play the part. Be the part." He laughed.  
  
Then, grimly, I watched Tobias send Marco a murderous look which stalled the laughter. I knew why, and yet I couldn't say anything. Not yet.  
  
Cassie glanced at me, then said, "Tobias, this is a big moment. Don't you think Rachel would want us to enjoy it as much as we can?"  
  
I don't know, he snapped. If she were alive I'd ask her.  
  
Cassie sighed. She turned her attention to me. "Why can't you tell everyone?"  
  
I didn't say anything at first. I just watched as the Andalite contingent swept onto the bridge. They were playing their own roles: The warriors very intimidating, fanning out to keep everyone covered, the captain himself moving with self-conscious dignity.  
  
The junior officers must have been mostly technical types because they looked around like starving men at the big brunch buffet. They couldn't stop themselves from touching the Yeerk display panels and controls with greedy fingers. They exchanged giddy looks that said, "Can you believe we're on a Pool ship?"  
  
All of them, including the warriors, kept stealing looks at Alloran. He had been infamous even before being made into the first and only Andalite-Controller.  
  
Cassie nudged me. "Well?"  
  
I looked at her. "I would love to do that, seriously I would. But when someone is presumed dead, then suddenly appears in front of everybody, alive and kicking, it does not fare well. That's why I have to lay low for a while...until I feel I can reveal myself without attracting a lot of attention."  
  
Cassie nodded. "I understand. But the next person you tell should be Tobias. He's the one taking it the hardest."  
  
I nodded, then turned my attention back to the front.  
  
Jake took a deep breath, then said, "Captain, thanks for coming over. As soon as we can settle some details, I'll be glad to turn this ship over to you."  
  
Details?  
  
"Yes. The Yeerk prisoners have been promised the opportunity to be subjected to the morphing technology. So have a number of Taxxons down on the surface."  
  
Denied, the captain said.  
  
I watched Jake's expression shift, knowing that he hadn't expected a flat denial.  
  
"I promised them," he said.  
  
You had no right to promise what you do not own.  
  
I couldn't seem to grasp the nerve of this Asculan. However, just before I was about to blow my cover, Marco saved me by taking the stand.  
  
"Hey, we're handing you a Yeerk Pool ship," he said vehemently. "And by the way, there are another couple of dozen major Yeerk vessels back in orbit around Earth and you can snap them up easy. Thanks to us."  
  
We're very grateful, Asculan said blandly, speaking to Jake and refusing to directly acknowledge Marco. But Yeerk technology, while no doubt fascinating to my officers, is less sophisticated than our own. It is of interest, but no more than that.  
  
Marco erupted. "We won your lousy war for you, you pompous old --"  
  
"My promise to the Yeerks and the Taxxons will be honored," Jake said, and from the tone I knew he was trying his best to sound determined and confident and forceful. And doing quite well, I might add.  
  
The morphing technology is the property of the Andalite people. I am aware that you are morph-capable yourself, as well as a number of your people. Despite the fact that this was illegal, we don't intend to take action against you for that. But the technology will not be made available any further.  
  
Cassie spoke up then, saying, "Sir, don't you understand? This is the way out. The Yeerks are parasites who require other bodies in order to see, to move about freely. As long as that's the case, they'll be trouble. Maybe not for us or for the Andalites anymore, but for someone."  
  
Now you're proposing the technology be made freely available to the entire Yeerk species? Asculan laughed derisively. You can't be serious. This will never happen. No Yeerk, no Taxxon will ever be given the morphing technology. Am I clear?  
  
No one said anything. From my eyes, Jake looked stunned. I myself was apalled. From their own words, it was clear: We had no way to convince the Andalite military. They had their "weapon," they were going to keep it. And if that meant the war continued, that was fine with them.  
  
And none of us had anything that could make them change their minds. With the Pool ship and its information in their possession they'd be able to destroy the remainder of the Yeerk fleet. As for the Taxxons on Earth and the remaining leaderless, cutoff, isolated Yeerks on Earth, that wasn't the Andalites' problem: They knew we'd deal with that.  
  
Checkmate.  
  
Jake still looked shaken, as if he was ready to surrender the point.  
  
Marco walked over and whispered something in Jake's ear, which seemed to have a lightening effect on him.  
  
Then, something extraordinarily strange occurred. Ax turned to Asculan and said, Captain-Prince Asculan, I hereby declare a challenge.  
  
A dozen Andalites stopped breathing.  
  
Jake looked at Marco. I looked at Cassie. Both pairs shrugged. They had no clue either.  
  
Asculan laughed. Aristh, you are not in a position to declare a challenge. You would have to be of princely rank or have the support of an Andalite of princely rank.  
  
Silence.  
  
Then, I hold that rank, Alloran said.  
  
A very long silence.  
  
In a low, dangerous tone, Asculan said, Alloran, you are under suspicion already for your actions on the Hork-Bajir world, I wouldn't --  
  
What I did on the Hork-Bajir world was precisely what you and the fleet were preparing to do to this world, Alloran shot back.  
  
Asculan focused all his eyes forward, a sign of intense concentration for an Andalite. I was under orders. You acted alone.  
  
I still retain my rank, Alloran grated. I am a war prince. This aristh has declared a challenge and I support that challenge. The requirements of the law are satisfied.  
  
At the moment I think, and even Jake thought, if someone had so much as sneezed there would have been a fight. Asculan's tail blade was twitching. He was ready to throw down.  
  
But not all the Andalites shared his feeling. Some of the officers and even some of the warriors looked troubled. Troubled by their boss. Andalites take their laws seriously.  
  
"Is someone going to maybe tell us what a challenge is?" Marco muttered.  
  
It was Ax who answered. It is the right and obligation of any Andalite warrior to challenge the order of a superior if he believes that superior is violating the fundamental rights of the electorate -- the people.  
  
"You're kidding," Marco said. "How do you people ever fight wars is you can challenge anything your superior officer tells you do?"  
  
If my challenge fails I will be harshly disciplined, Ax said. I will be exiled. Permanently. And my tail blade...my tail blade will be cut off.  
  
Alloran said, Asculan, under the law you may declare an emergency and continue until we can arrange for the challenge to be judged at a later time. But I do not see how a court could agree that this negotiation over prisoners can possibly be called a legitimate emergency. In which case you would lose rank and position and be exiled.  
  
I know the law, Asculan snapped.  
  
We mostly felt like bystanders at an event the fate of the world. This was an all-Andalite show. Their law, their sense of right and wrong. I knew I resented it. Jake did too, it seemed. But none of us could do anything but hope it would work out.  
  
At last Asculan said, I will confer with my officers.  
  
He seemed to think we should all leave the bridge and let him hold his meeting.  
  
"I fought for this ship, Captain." Jake said. "You were invited aboard."  
  
Probably not a good idea to antagonize the old monster, but Jake wasn't going to start playing the wimp now. We had all paid for this ship. It was ours. If we gave it up it would be to allies, not overlords.  
  
Asculan led his officers away. The rest of us let loose one very long sigh.  
  
"What now?" Jake asked Ax.  
  
He couldn't answer. He seemed to be shivering.  
  
Alloran answered instead. Asculan will contact the fleet high command. They will talk to their political advisors and try to decide whether they can win a challenge. It would be a sort of trial, with each side presenting evidence and witnesses. The entire Andalite electorate would have a vote. It would consume perhaps half a day.  
  
Marco said, "So what are the odds?"  
  
Alloran shook his head. I have been away from the home world a very long time. I do not know much about my people anymore. But the high command will make a cautious assessment. They are not bold or adventurous, they are more politicians than warriors. If Asculan comes back here prepared to go forward with the challenge, it will mean they are very, very confident of winning.  
  
"Okay. And by the way, Alloran, thanks for standing up for Ax. And all of us," Jake said.  
  
Alloran turned his main eyes to Jake, and gave him a strange look. I never hoped to be free again. You freed me. I have done what I had done in my life. I am what I am, though I may have gained at least some wisdom through the years of enslavement to Visser One. Just the same, I will always be Alloran, the Butcher of the Hork-Bajir, the only Andalite to be taken alive by the Yeerks. But, disgrace, even despised, for whatever I am worth, I am yours to command.  
  
The speech was delivered in low thought-speak tone, all emotion severely controlled. But then Alloran whipped his tail blade over his head, so fast it cracked like a whip. He smiled the subtle Andalite smile and yelled, Do you know who did that? Do you know who moved my tail? I did. I did. I did it.  
  
Jake smiled, and I believe the rest of us did as well.  
  
Alloran's exuberance seemed to shake Ax out of his funk and he raised his tail to touch the blade to Alloran's. Welcome back, War-Prince Alloran.  
  
Asculan did not return to the bridge. He sent one of his junior officers, a calculated insult. But I guess no one really likes to admit face-to-face that they're beaten.  
  
Captain Asculan issues the following orders: Four morphing cubes will be made available to aristh Aximili to use as he sees fit. Aristh Aximili is hereby elevated to the rank of prince. Prince Aximili is appointed liasion between the Andalite fleet and the people of Earth.  
  
Asculan's officer waited, expecting a reply.  
  
Ax said, Thank the captain for me. I will carry out my duties to the best of my ability. My challenge is hereby withdrawn.  
  
And at that moment, with that polite exchange of messages, the war against the Yeerks was over. 


	6. Chapter 6 (Cassie)

*Chapter 6*  
  
Cassie  
  
(Cassie knows more about this than I do. This will be her story portion.)  
  
  
  
Things happened quickly now.  
  
With terms now approved, the Yeerks on the Pool ship formalized their surrender.  
  
The Pool ship joined the Andalite fleet in entering close Earth orbit where we contacted the remaining Yeerk ships and gave them the stark choice: Resist and die, or surrender and be transformed.  
  
Some Yeerk ships contacted the Yeerk home world and received instructions to fight. But the Andalites had all the technical data of the Pool ship -- including disabling codes, combat tactics, communications ciphers. The ships that resisted were destroyed. The rest surrendered.  
  
The Yeerk crews were shuttled to the Pool ship where they left their host bodies to return to the now-refilled pool. Newly freed humans and Hork- Bajir worked with Andalites to keep the ships flying.  
  
Jake had one more run-in with Asculan over possession of the great trophy prisoner, Visser One. But Jake won that confrontation, too. Visser One remained our prisoner.  
  
We Animorphs -- including the cloaked Rachel -- and the newly minted Prince Aximili, with our prisoner, landed Ax's official liasion ship, a sleek Fast-Courier, right into the middle of the Mall in Washington. Not a mall, the Mall, a a sort of open green space with the Capitol Building at one end, the Smithsonian Institution and various government buildings on both sides, and the obelisk of the Washington Monument at the far end.  
  
We called ahead, not wanting to terrify anyone. There were roughly a thousand cops and twice that many newspeople waiting for us.  
  
It was, as Marco said, a "shiver-my-spine moment."  
  
A sea of microphones and video cameras and flashbulbs. Ax and Jake, and to a lesser extent Marco and I, gave a sort of brief explanation of what had been happening, and where things stood now. Rachel, meanwhile, stood just off to the side, head masked by the cowl. No one paid much attention to her. I bet she resented not getting any attention, but it was for the best, after all.  
  
Needless to say, it was kind of a big news day.  
  
Tobias was silent throughout. If he even heard the questions he didn't show it. And then, as Marco was telling yet another amusing anecdote, Tobias spread his wings, caught an updraft, and flew away. I watched Rachel look up after him, a watery glint seeming to come from her eye.  
  
The next day an Andalite scout ship reported finding a human body floating in space. Young, female. The Blade ship had jettisoned her body before going into Zero space.  
  
Or, at least, that's what everyone else assumed. I knew different. That the body was actually the work of Erek, and that Rachel, of course, was alive and well.  
  
The Andalites brought "her" to California. Near the devastation that was all that was left of our homes.  
  
I was there when "Rachel" returned. Rachel's mother was as well. So was Rachel, actually. She wanted to see Erek's work. So did I. The Andalites treated "her" body with great respect. "She" had been wrapped in some sort of soft cloth. I guess it was the Andalite way.  
  
They uncovered her face and Rachel's mom and I -- and Rachel -- identified the body. Rachel then pulled me to the side and commented on how real it looked. She was almost afraid that it was her. I couldn't help but smile.  
  
Two days later, at Rachel's suggestion, we cremated the body. She of course wouldn't have wanted to rot in the ground...it would have been too much like her getting dirty. The body and casket became a few handfuls of ashes in a pretty china urn.  
  
Everyone was at the memorial ceremony. By this point our story had swept the planet. Everyone alive knew our names.  
  
The memorial had to be held outside. Fortunately it was a nice day. You could see the Pacific Ocean from the spot in the cemetery where Rachel's monument would be placed. There was an honor guard of free Hork- Bajir. Two dozen Andalite warriors stood at attention. Our friend and ally General Doubleday was there and quite a few men and women in uniform. And, lastly, the tall cloaked figure just outside the memorial grounds. Guards tried to usher her away, but she showed an invitation which I had given her earlier, and they backed off.  
  
Jake and Marco and me and Ax. We all gave little speeches. The President of the United States was there. He gave a speech, too.  
  
Rachel later told me that she loved the memorial. She laughed at how it had been way over the top, but that it was great to have that kind of attention...even if it was a funeral procession.  
  
The ceremony was almost over when I saw him. I'd been watching the sky. I knew if he was still alive, he would come. I caught Rachel's eye, and nodded slowly, turning my eyes up. She did the same, then smiled and nodded back.  
  
He wheeled high overhead, riding a thermal. His hawk eyes would see everything of course, even from half a mile up.  
  
But as the band played some horribly depressing music, down he came. He swooped down and landed on the box, wings flaring. One of the ushers moved to chase him off. Jake took the man's arm.  
  
Tobias closed his talons around the urn's small handle. He glared fiercely at Rachel's mom. She was crying, had been all along. She sobbed and nodded her head, giving her permission. I took that chance to steal a glance at the actual Rachel. In the shadows, I could see her morphing. Her bald eagle form was almost complete.  
  
Then Tobias looked at me. I said, "Yes, Tobias. She would want it." Then, in a voice only he could hear, I said, "But Tobias, I'll tell you this. Miracles can sometime come in on eagle's wings."  
  
He looked at me funny, quizzically, then took off.  
  
I don't know where he found the strength to lift that urn, but he did. He flew away, low at first, then, catching a thermal, he bore the urn away into the sky.  
  
I turned back, watching out the corner of my eye as the bald eagle lifted off the ground, following Tobias toward the horizon.  
  
Jake looked at that sight, as if somehow pondering. Then he looked at my face, my totally beaming, radiant face, and somehow, he knew the truth....somehow, but he didn't show it. 


	7. Chapter 7 (Rachel)

*Chapter 7*  
  
Rachel  
  
(Back to me, finally)  
  
  
  
I rode several thermals in my eagle form, keeping Tobias in sight. Occasionally, he would glance behind him, looking for his follower, as if he could sense me there. Then, finally, he swooped down into his meadow, the urn still clutched in his talons. He landed softly in a tree, and placed the urn safely in a small hole. Then he closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep.  
  
I swooped in about 10 minutes later, just to make time, and landed on a tree just to Tobias's left.  
  
Tobias, I called quietly.  
  
No answer.  
  
Tobias! I said, louder.  
  
Hmm, so I was being followed after all, came the reply of a suddenly tired bird.  
  
You have no need for that urn, Tobias. Rachel will always be with you.  
  
How would you know? How do you know what I need?  
  
Because, Tobias. I love you. That's why.  
  
To my grim satisfaction, I heard a soft thump, as Tobias the hawk fell out of the tree upon hearing those words.  
  
W-who are you? Tobias said with a tinge of fear.  
  
I'll show you, I said fiercely. I took flight for a bit. fluttering down to the ground so I could demorph with ease. my bones began to shift position, melding again and again, changing to become human, as my body rearranged itself to fill my human body's needs. The cloak which I had worn came into focus as I finished the morph, and I turned to Tobias, smiling. "Listen to the sound of my voice, to begin with. Then I'll show you my face."  
  
Tobias listened, and as he listened, he began the transformation to human. "Rachel!" he said, when he had a mouth to say it.  
  
I lowered my cowl, straightened my frizzles of blondish hair, and looked at him through my blue eyes. "The one and only Rachel, my dear Tobias."  
  
Tobias's eyes watered. "How?! The urn, we cremated you, you're not supposed to be alive!"  
  
"Technology has its upsides, especially when used by Erek."  
  
"Erek?"  
  
"Yeah. He made a doll of me, and planted it where the Blade ship was originally at. While everyone was discussing politics, like the challenge between Asculan and Aximili, and all."  
  
"You were there?"  
  
"I've worn this cloak since I escaped the Blade ship. I've been with you guys everywhere. Only two people currently know I'm alive though. You and Cassie."  
  
"That explains her telling me that miracles can come on eagle's wings."  
  
He snorted. "So, how did you escape, anyway?"  
  
I laughed. "Oh, please, has there ever been a battle in which I haven't found some way to survive?"  
  
"Not really, but what happened, exactly? Last thing I saw was the polar bear about to strike you, before the connection cut off."  
  
"Simple enough. He did strike me. Very nearly killed me. My neck was broken. But, after talking to the Ellimist, I somehow found the strength. The Yeerks weren't paying attention to me, a lifeless body, so I quickly, and I do mean quickly, morphed to cockroach and got out of there. I escaped on Bug fighter via my Hork-Bajir morph, and then grabbed a cloak out of the back while my ship was docking with the Pool ship."  
  
We talked long into the night, and I explained everything. My need to stay secret, as well as his need to stay within his original parameters, as if I were still dead. He eventually understood, and nodded. I would reveal myself in good time to everyone.  
  
I left the next morning, to stay with Cassie. For the time being, my own home, my own family was no longer mine. I had only Cassie and Tobias now, and Cassie had a house. I would live there, and help Cassie with whatever she needed help with. 


	8. Chapter 8 (Marco)

*Chapter 8*  
  
Marco  
  
(One year later)  
  
  
  
My career was going pretty well. I was past the point of being a fad, anyway. I'd done seven appearances total on Letterman and Leno, plus several times each on Jon Stewart and Conan. The Today Show, Good Morning America, Oprah? Been there. Bill O'Reilly called me a genuine American hero. I'd been on CNN so many times that Greta Van Susteren and I were practically roommates. Guest-VJ on MTV? Of course.  
  
And all of that is over and above the rounds of interviews that came in that first wild month after the defeat of the Yeerks. I mean, in that first month you couldn't keep track of how many shows I'd been on. Jake and Cassie and I -- and even that strange cloaked kid who always seemed to hang around -- were bigger than all of Hollywood, D.C., and Manhattan put together. We weren't just celebrities, we were the only celebrities. We had senators and big-league rap producers and hot starlets fetching us sodas and Kit Kat bars.  
  
So cool.  
  
That first month we owned the world. But that was the easy part: We had a story to tell and everyone wanted the details of how we and our weird alien friend and all our animal morphs had saved the world. The tough part was to keep it going after we stopped being The New Thing.  
  
I had become the unofficial spokesman for the Animorphs. Jake wasn't interested in doing it. Neither was Cassie. And as for Tobias, well, no one had seen him or heard from him since Rachel's funeral. But out of everyone, the cloaked person never seemed to leave our side. She was a very suspicious sort. But her moves were aggressive. In many ways, she acted just like Rachel herself had. So, none of us really got bothered by her being there. For most of us, it just made us feel a little better, as if the girl was a  
  
reincarnation of Rachel, or something.  
  
How little I knew.  
  
It wasn't that Jake and Cassie never gave interviews, but Jake was too serious and heavy for the media. Jake was on his way to becoming this icon, this national hero figure.  
  
He had that whole tragic-hero thing going on. People knew about him sending his cousin to take out his brother and they ate it up. I am not kidding when I say that some congressperson actually suggested carving his face onto Mount Rushmore. Nothing came of that, fortunately.  
  
So, anyway, everyone acted like they wanted Jake to do their show, but Jake wasn't really into that game and the bookers for the shows knew it. Jake did not do good panel. He wouldn't sit there and trade jokes with Dave. There was too much he didn't want to talk about. Jake was still carrying the world on his shoulders, and it showed.  
  
As for Cassie, well, she was worse, if that's possible. She had the tendency to wander around in all the moral subtext of everything. She'd take some story about a cool, rock 'em sock 'em battle we'd been in and turn it into this mope about the morality of self-defense.  
  
So, basically, with neither of those two being, shall we say, Hollywood, that job fell to me.  
  
Bread and butter, baby. Could I do panel? Sure I could do panel. I was as much of a hero as any of the Animorphs and unlike Jake the Yeerk- Killer and Saint Cassie, I was fun.  
  
I got a gig as "technical advisor" to a Spielberg movie about us. Animorph. Come on, you gotta love that. I did all the shows to plug that deal. Sample dialogue: "I loved working with Steven, he is absolutely devoted to accuracy, and I knew he was the man who could be trusted with our story."  
  
I wrote a book, with some help from a ghostwriter. The title was The Gorilla Speaks. Number one on The New York Times best-seller list, number one on the PW list, number one on the Web. The second slot had been filled by a Rachel Stamper, with the book Dominance of the Grizzly. Which was really strange, both due to the name of the author and the name of the book, as the grizzly had been Rachel's favorite morph.  
  
Cassie wrote a book, too: Insights on the Animal Mind. I think it topped out around number seven. Not that I'm competitive.  
  
I had just been signed for a regular acting job. I was going to be Nick Lang, a wisecracking mutant superhero sort of guy who can turn into animals. I wasn't the main star, I was the main supporting player, (and the main special effect), which is what I wanted: I needed time to "work on my craft" without the pressure of carrying the entire TV show. We were going to be on Fox in the old X-Files slot, which was kind of cool.  
  
The acting job was especially great because it kept me alive as a product spokesman. I had a three-year deal with Pepsi, plus smaller deals with Alamo Rent A Car and Gap/Old Navy. You would not believe the money.  
  
So, a year after the end, I was seventeen and rich from book deals and product endorsements and acting contracts. I had a beach house in Santa Barbara (close to Hollywood but with less traffic) and an apartment in New York. I owned a canary-yellow Viper, a red Maserati, and a desert- camouflage Humvee. I dated girls who wouldn't have looked at me before. I ate in cool restaurants.  
  
And maybe you're expecting me to say it was all an empty experience, that my life wasn't all that great, but you know what? I was happy.  
  
We all should have been happy. Cassie was Undersecretary of the Interior for Resident Aliens. It paid less than I spend on corn chips, but hey, Cassie was seventeen, like me, and she was meeting with the President and spending most of her time with the free Hork-Bajir. And, as always, with that cloaked girl at her side. She later introduced us, and I learned that she was actually named Rachel. Stranger than that was that she and Cassie were sort of best friends by this time. They acted as if they had known each other for...well, for as long as Rachel and Cassie had known each other. I didn't quite catch on then, but I did find it really suspicious.  
  
Anyways, the Hork-Bajir had been given Yellowstone as a habitat. They lived on bark and cared for the trees and the tourists loved it. Yellowstone was so mobbed with tourists wanting to see Hork-Bajir swinging from the redwoods or whatever that there was a year-and-a-half waiting list to get in.  
  
Arbron's Taxxons -- those that had survived the battle -- had fulfilled another of Cassie's farseeing dreams: They had, as agreed, permanently morphed to anaconda and various other way-too-big snakes. They'd been relocated to the Brazilian rain forest, which was now protected by Brazilian law and hefty U.N. payments. If you were a guinea pig walking around in the rain forest now you were toast, but the former Taxxons left people alone.  
  
Arbron himself went down there with them. He could not morph again, of course. He was an Andalite nothlit. Many years ago, far away, he had stayed too long in Taxxon morph and had been unable to demorph. And now he was Taxxon for good.  
  
Arbron was shot and killed by poachers. It was a big incident for a while. They caught the poachers and put them away. Everyone said how terrible it was. But you know, Arbron was probably grateful. He had saved his adopted people, but he had been a prisoner of that awful Taxxon hunger, and that's no way to live.  
  
The Andalite ambassador to the United Nations took charge of the body - what was left of it. Arbron was flown back to the Andalite home world and given a quiet funeral.  
  
Anyway, Cassie was a government poo-bah, always racing here and there in government jets and helicopters -- with Rachel, of course -- making sure Toby and her people were good and just generally saving the world. Also taking college courses at night because she still wants to be a veterinarian like her mom and dad. That's Cassie for you: Save the rain forest, save some cow from a hernia -- the girl just does not get the whole celebrity thing. I mean Wal-Mart practically begged her on hands and knees to take a million dollars to do ads for their jeans, and she said she didn't have time because there was some controversy over an access ramp into some forest somewhere.  
  
It boggles my mind.  
  
And Ax was doing great as well. He was an official prince and this huge hero back on his home planet. He had stepped out of Elfangor's shadow at long last, and was not only a hero but the one and only expert on all things human.  
  
Andalite tourism was the coming thing. The numbers were limited - interstellar travel isn't cheap, you know. But the big thing was for wealthy or influential Andalites to come to Earth and acquire human morphs. Then it was off to the mall food courts to raid the Cinnabon and Mrs. Fields.  
  
I am not kidding. An Andalite with a mouth is a dangerous thin when there are cinnamon buns around. Having no mouths or sense of smell themselves, the have no natural defenses against the appeal of flavor -- as we had witnessed time and time again with the Ax-man himself. You do not want to get between a newly-morphed Andalite tourist and a chocolate chip cookie.  
  
Andalites and humans mostly got along well. Andalite civilians are about three degrees more humble and lovable than the Andalite warriors we'd always met.  
  
Some people had been afraid the news that aliens were real would freak the entire human race. They were wrong. Duh. Humans had been watching Star Trek and Star Wars and reading Heinlein and Simmons and Orson Scott Card for too many years. Humans weren't freaked by aliens -- they'd been expecting them for years and were just relieved they weren't The Borg.  
  
Ax worked out technology-transfer deals with some of the big corporations. They have to keep it slow because if you just dump a hundred years of technological devices overnight the stock marcket goes nuts. It worked out okay, though. The Andalites can definitely teach us a lot about computer architecture. But it was Microsoft and Sony and Adobe and Nintendo that came up with the killer apps. I mean, the new Palm Pilots will be actual pilots.  
  
The Andalites flatly refused to let us share their weapons technology. But NASA has had a definite revival: The first human Zero-space vehicle will be built jointly by Boeing and Lockheed and be ready for launch in three years. H. sapiens was going to the stars. Look out, universe, we're coming to build a Starbucks near you.  
  
As for Jake, well, my boy Jake has always had a serious side to him. I mean, I tried to talk to him about things. But some guys shake off a war and move on, and other guys don't.  
  
Jake carried Tom and Rachel and those seventeen thousand Yeerks around his neck like the Ancient Mariner and his albatross.  
  
Being Jake he didn't lose it. He didn't go off and become some kind of drug addict or have some big breakdown or whatever. He was still Jake. But he was a different Jake. Smaller and bigger at the same time, if that makes any sense. He was closed off, inward. He would sound almost like the old Jake sometimes but you just got this sense that he was out of phase with everyone elsae. Like he was a half step ahead or behind.  
  
Of course this just made him into the strong and silent type and he always was a big, good-looking guy, so he got marriage proposals (and other proposals) from girls as young as twelve and women old enough to be his grandmother.  
  
No interest.  
  
He loved Cassie, of course, but I don't know what happened there. I know when I talk to Cassie I ask her if she's seen him and the answer is always no. The same when I talk to Jake, although he always says he's just about to call her, just about to.  
  
Write a book? No thanks.  
  
Endorsements? No thanks.  
  
Every college on the planet tried to recruit him. No thanks. West Point offered him a gig as an instructor in the Tactical Application of Emerging Technologies and Xeno-Warfare. No thanks. If he'd been old enough he could have run for president as the candidate of Democrats and Republicans both. Jake was the biggest hero the world had ever seen because he was the hero for all humans, not one nation. He had saved the lives and freedom of the entire human race. I mean, he could have snapped his fingers and had anything he wanted.  
  
The problem was, he didn't want anything. Except for Tobias to come back. For Racel and Tom to be alive. For the chance to unlive one fateful moment when he gave the order that doomed seventeen thousand defenseless Yeerks.  
  
I worried about him.  
  
Okay, I worried about him while sitting by my pool or driving my Maserati or escorting some bubbly Hollywood honey past the rope line at the most exclusive clubs. I worried about him.  
  
I hadn't seen Jake or Cassie in a couple of months when my lawyer called to say the date had been set.  
  
And now, the three of us would be together again. In The Hague, Netherlands.  
  
We were to testify in the war crimes trial of the Yeerk prisoner, Visser One. 


	9. Chapter 9 (Cassie)

*Chapter 9*  
  
Cassie  
  
  
  
"Is Jake here yet?" I asked Marco. I figured I might as well find out right away. I wasn't eager to see Jake. I mean, yes, I was. But the Jake I was eager to see might not even exist anymore. The Jake I wanted to see was the one who had talked about us being together after the war was over.  
  
The war was over. We weren't together. Now, this reunion was just bound to be awkward if not painful.  
  
"I haven't seen him," Marco said.  
  
"When did you get here?"  
  
"Here?" Marco looked around, puzzled. We were in the modern lobby of one of The Hague's best hotels. "Oh, here at the hotel? I'm not staying at the hotel. My business manager set me up in a rented villa. There's a fence, a gate, it's easier to keep the groupies away."  
  
I laughed and he grinned in response. "You're actually completely serious, aren't you?" I asked.  
  
"Cassie, how long have you known me? Am I ever completely serious?"  
  
I felt a wave of affection for Marco. We had never been the closest of Animorphs -- our connection went through Jake, it wasn't direct. But here we were, in some ways the only two real survivors. We had even prospered. Each of us was far better off by most measures than we'd have been without the war.  
  
"Is Jake staying at this hotel?" I asked.  
  
Marco nodded. Then, with sudden fire, he said, "I wish he would see you, Cassie. You're what he needs. I mean, I try to talk to him but you know Jake, he can go totally opaque when he wants to. You ask him if he's okay, he says, 'Sure.' You ask him if he needs anything, it's 'No, I'm good.' But he never seems to do anything. Not that I know of anyway."  
  
"How often do you see him?" I asked.  
  
Marco started to answer, stopped, gave a guilty shrug. "Officially? As in, I see him and he sees me?"  
  
"Ah. You're spying on him?"  
  
"I'm still an Animorph. I still like to fly. Maybe I'm in eagle morph and I happen to see him?"  
  
So how is he, really?"  
  
"I'm not exactly a psychiatrist, Cassie."  
  
I wasn't going to accept that. "Marco, you have a very subtle mind and you're a good observer. And he's your best friend."  
  
The waitress brought us beverages and a plate of some kind of snack. She gave us the familiar "I know you!" smile and left only reluctantly.  
  
"She wants me," Marco said. Then, realizing that I wasn't going to be diverted, he sighed and said, "Like I say, I'm no psychiatrist. But he's depressed. You know, like not just sad but something deeper? Like clinically depressed. Like a party balloon with half the helium gone. Like a flashlight with low batteries. He hangs around the house with his mom and dad. Sometimes he'll go for a drive -- you know, at least he kept the free Jaguar. I mean, if he'd refused that I'd have had to kill him personally. And," Marco added with a significant look, "he goes to see her."  
  
I knew who Marco meant by "her." After all, she was with me quite a bit. Rachel, at the moment, was actually sitting on one of the lobby benches, listening to the conversation. Marco was about to get the shock of his life. I smiled inwardly.  
  
"He doesn't put flowers on the memorial or whatever," Marco went on, "there are always lots of those. He goes when no one's around, late, after hours. The guys at the gate let him in. He parks and just kind of sits there like he's hanging out with her. I don't think he talks to her. Sad as it is to say, I wish he did. Talking to a dead person is better than not talking at all. He sits there for an hour, sometimes two, stares out at the ocean. Watches the sun go down. Then he leaves. Sometimes I think he's waiting there hoping Tobias will show up."  
  
Tears were welling in my eyes. The image was too sad. "Rachel would be so mad at him," I said, glancing meaningfully at Rachel. She stood up and began walking over to Marco, a smile forming on her lips.  
  
"Yeah," Marco agreed. "Get over it. Shake it off. That's what she'd say."  
  
"Yeah," Rachel said loudly. "Get over it. Shake it off. That's what I'd say alright. Gee, Marco, you know me too well."  
  
Marco did a double-take at that. He spun flat around and landed on his butt. I couldn't help but laugh at the pitiful sight Marco had become.  
  
"R-R-Rachel?!" Marco stuttered, eyes wide.  
  
"Aww, Marco, what's the matter? You look like you've seen a ghost!" Rachel laughed, an enriched, hearty laugh which made her sound as healthy as I knew she was.  
  
After all, she did more aerobics and gymnastics in her free time that I had ever seen her do before. Rachel was always in training, as it were. It was as if she wanted to be fit for any situation, not just the battles as an Animorph. It showed that she was still a warrior, still craved the thrill of battle.  
  
But I wasn't about to complain. She was alive after all. That's what mattered to me. She was still breathing, despite the Yeerks' best efforts to annihilate her.  
  
Marco stayed pretty quiet after his shock subsided, after he got the picture that Rachel wasn't to be revealed to everyone at once. Now, he knew that only Tobias, himself, and I knew the truth about Rachel. Only ones left would be Jake and Ax. Of course, Jake would take it the best, react from it the most. So, naturally, he would have to be next. But, as usual, we couldn't let him know immediately.  
  
It wasn't the proper thing to do, in Rachel's case. Normally, when someone comes away from a near-fatal situation unscathed, the result is for the person to shrug it off and move on. However, in Rachel's case, she had been prepared for death. She knew she would die. Or thought she knew. In any case, she was in the mindset to die, as if nothing could change that fact. When she managed to escape that death, her self-control went into shock, and her world sort of spiraled into a compound fracturous complication.  
  
It was like a wave of confusion had swept over her. Which was why she stayed out of the others' way, for the most part. Her gradual recovery helped her to regain her sense of purpose, and seeing all of us moping about made her angry that we hadn't moved on. So, she just had to start revealing herself again.  
  
Our next target was Jake. And I have to tell you, he would be surprised. 


	10. Chapter 10 (Jake)

Chapter 10  
  
Jake  
  
  
  
"…Did conspire to subjugate the people of Earth through subversion, terror, and violence. Four. That the defendant did conspire to overthrow all legitimate forms of government through subversion, terror, and violence. Five. That the defendant did commit numerous acts of attempted murder. Six. That the defendant committed murder in the specifics contained in appendix 2C. Seven. That the defendant committed of caused to be committed numerous acts of torture in the specifics contained in appendix 2D. Eight. That the defendant did …"  
  
The reading of Visser One's indictment was going to take a while. The War- Crimes Tribunal didn't have a death penalty, just prison. The prosecutors said he was eligible for something like eight hundred years in prison. And since they had about a hundred witnesses drawn from former human- Controllers, Hork-Bajir, and we Animorphs, there wasn't much question about the outcome.  
  
Alloran would not be allowed to testify. It came too close to being self- incrimination, the courts said.  
  
It had taken a year to organize the trial. The biggest problem was how to have the accused be present and involved with the proceedings. There was no way the visser would be allowed to take a host body. I mean, how does a court order one of the very things it considers a crime?  
  
Fortunately Ax's people were willing to help. Very willing. Andalite technicians created a Yeerk box. It was about the size of a hardcover book. It contained a miniaturized Kandrona source, a computer-interface, and a voice synthesizer. The visser could hear and "see" and speak. The box, painted lavender for some obscure Andalite reason, sat on a pedestal facing the curved judges' bench.  
  
There was a panel of five judges, American, Dutch, Chinese, Kenyan, and Chilean.  
  
The visser had half a dozen appointed lawyers. They looked very professional, very slick, and like they knew they had zero chance.  
  
There was a gallery down one side of the courtroom for media. They had crammed what looked like a hundred cameras of every conceivable type into a space smaller than a men's room.  
  
The whole world was watching. We were live on every station everywhere. 


End file.
